In this chapter from Training Kit (Exam 70-462): Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases, you learn about how to deploy both failover clustering and AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Exam objectives in this chapter:

Implement a SQL Server clustered instance.

Implement AlwaysOn.

Failover clustering instances and AlwaysOn Availability Groups are two strategies for making Microsoft SQL Server 2012 databases highly available. Failover clustering is a more traditional approach to ensuring that a database remains available in the event of server failure. If you are planning to deploy a failover cluster instance, you must first deploy the cluster and then install SQL Server 2012 by using a method that differs from a traditional installation.

AlwaysOn Availability Groups are a technology new in SQL Server 2012 that also rely on failover clustering technologies. AlwaysOn Availability Groups are a replacement technology for database mirroring and have the benefit of allowing clients read-only access to the secondary replica. In this chapter, you learn about how to deploy both of these SQL Server 2012 high-availability technologies.

Lessons in this chapter:

Lesson 1: Clustering SQL Server 2012

Lesson 2: AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Before You Begin

To complete the practice exercises in this chapter, make sure that you have:

Completed the setup tasks for installing computers DC, SQL-A, SQL-B, and SQL-CORE as outlined in the introduction of this book.

Completed the setup tasks outlined in the end-of-lesson practice exercises in Chapter 1, through Chapter 7.

Deployed two new servers, named SQL-C and SQL-D, in the CONTOSO domain. Instructions for configuring these servers are outlined in the introduction of this book.